Melissa Ginsburg

WHITETAIL IN THE RAIN MOVING ABOUT

to lure the deer install the salt

acquire the sack of corn and scatter

devise a thirst lodge hope red clover

chicory orchard grass give them

fruit in the rainstorm give them

such a mineral they cannot turn from you

give them the pea plant the acorn

the encounter

the encounter you want

the meadow embouchure

paint the orchid scent on the bottoms

of your shoes and walk into the herd

manager and agitator

herd of unshed velvet

MELISSA GINSBURG is the author of the poetry collections Doll Apollo (Louisiana State University Press, 2022) and Dear Weather Ghost (Four Way, 2013); and the novels The House Uptown (MacMillan, 2021) and Sunset City (Ecco, 2016). Her recent poems appear in DIAGRAM, The New Yorker, Southwest Review, and West Branch. She is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.